1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the printing industry, and more particularly to the production of a planar sheet of material of relatively large size at least one smaller area of which is defined in size and configuration by a perimeter including a plurality of elongated slits extending completely through the material and a plurality of means integrally attaching said smaller area to said relatively larger sheet of material, whereby the entire relatively larger sheet may be processed through a computer-controlled printer after formation of the elongated slits for the printing of indicia only on the smaller defined areas incorporated on the larger sheet of material and defined by the elongated slits and the attachment means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A preliminary patentability and novelty search on this invention has revealed the existence of the following United States patents, none of which appear to be particularly relevant to the subject matter of the invention described herein.
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Heretofore, the customary way to produce business cards, for example, was to define the content of the card and place an order with a printer for production of a quantity of the cards. At least three problems are almost always present in such a scenario. The first is the time frame within which it takes a printer to produce a printing or engraving die for the content to be printed on the card, second is the number of cards to be printed, and third is the cost of producing the cards. Under conventional methods of printing or engraving business cards, several weeks can be expended during which time the need for the cards persists, sometimes on an emergency basis. Sometimes only a few business cards are needed, but needed quickly and with the appearance of professionalism in the printing, such as when a new sales person is employed and immediately starts calling on potential customers. The sales person needs appropriate business cards immediately.
Accordingly, it is one of the principal objects of the present invention to provide a method and means by which professionally appearing business and other types of cards may be produced through use of a personal computer and a printer responsive to commands from the computer.
Heretofore, business cards have been printed on a large sheet, and the sheet then divided to separate the business cards into individual cards. This process requires special printing capabilities and equipment, and special cutting equipment for separating the cards. Accordingly, it is another object of the present invention to provide a planar sheet of material which has been processed prior to printing by substantial pre-cutting to define smaller areas defined by elongated slits spaced at associated ends by integral attachment means so that the substantially pre-cut yet detachably attached cards may be printed after cutting but prior to detachment.
Another object of the invention is the provision of an expendible article of manufacture which may be utilized as the base from which other products may be produced through use of personal computers and printers responsive to instructions from such personal computers whereby such other products may be imprinted with selected indicia in a professional manner and at a cost orders of magnitude less than is usually the case.
Still another object of the invention is the provision of a method for producing as an article of manufacture a base product that may be utilized, in conjunction with a computer program and a printer controlled by the computer program, to produce professionally appearing business cards, announcement cards such as for weddings, invitation cards, name cards and index cards of many different types and for many different purposes.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of a method and article of manufacture that enables the production of the above-enumerated products at a cost and within a time frame much less than is usually the case.
The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be apparent from the following description and the drawings. It is to be understood however that the invention is not limited to the embodiment illustrated and described since it may be embodied in various forms within the scope of the appended claims.